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Other equipment included my KAB/Technics SL1200 mk6 turntable with Audio-Technica OC9ML/II moving coil cartridge and my DIY ROON endpoint. I also used my Anthem STR preamp and power amp when experimenting with room correction on the S7t. The tilt of the speaker is to optimize the frequency response at seated ear level. The main enclosure is built with 0.75-inch and 1-inch High-Density Fiberboard with extensive horizontal and vertical bracing, along with being lined with additional damping materials.
No question a DSP version of this speaker would allow the engineers to make many other improvements. We are back to the “active speakers are better but never sell in the USA” issue. This in-room measurement of the Perlisten S7t tower speaker is an 18-point spatial average. The results show an admirably smooth and gently declining response between 350 Hz to 20 kHz.
Perlisten Audio S7t 5.2 Channel Home Theater System Review
The piano on “Get Out of Town” was different from the Conte track, with more upper register notes that were lighter and had a more distinctive ring to them from the live recording venue. Each note was almost bell-like in nature, with the decay of the notes floating in space around me before eventually disappearing. The R5m gave a clean and clear presentation of all of that along with nice, meaty-sounding bass plucks that had surprisingly weight to them. I ended up positioning them about a foot closer together than my usual Revel F228Be towers, and that helps to really lock the center image in place and make the most of the speaker’s horizontal staging.
Even at a mere 5 feet away, I was still able to get a good stereo image from the S7t. The dimension, body, and detail of sound that I was hearing from these speakers was incredibly well controlled and showed almost no signs of variation as I moved around, compared to any other passive loudspeaker that I have heard. That level of detail reproduction and control extended to the bass as well.
Sony Mgongo 5.2 Channel Component Home Theatre System
There is a huge difference between the amount of air that has to be pushed to create a 40 Hz sound as opposed to a 4000 Hz sound. As for my 5.2 $5k system, it would probably look a lot like the one described in the article. I might swing for monopole surrounds as opposed to those bipoles.
Above are the horizontal radiation curves from 0 to 90 degrees, taken in-room, scaled from 300 Hz on up. Room reflections make this graph increasingly inaccurate below 1 kHz, however, one can see the DPC is integrating well into the radiation pattern of the 6.5-inch woofer. We can see the response above 3.5 kHz rolls off more quickly than in a speaker like the Revel F228BE Carlo used for comparison as a result of the deep waveguide.
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My studio listening space is not the most forgiving environment for speakers to begin with, especially with its shorter ceiling height. Still, the Perlisten S7t gave me a real sense of hearing all the nuances in whatever music I was listening to, in equal measure. From the most subtle inflections of the human singing voice to the sounds of sliding fingers over guitar strings to the details of breathing when playing the flute. These details remained consistent in sound and level even when I was listening well off-axis or if I moved my seat unusually close to the speakers.
That this is an advance on current speaker designs can be seen specifically in the vertical response, but its effect may be better appreciated with our results in the listening window and in-room response. I do caution that the intellectual property that enables this speaker does not, on its own, set the sound of the speaker. Changes in the slope of the in-room response and the value of the directivity indexes will change the perceived frequency balance and spaciousness of the speaker playing in mono. Perlisten is setting these to achieve what they think is the optimal subjective result.
Perlisten has developed new, patent-pending, technology, and is using the latest CAD tools to model the DPC and the crossover. You want the vertical response to be flat off-axis and you want it down significantly at 20-degrees. The R5m very much exhibited the same midrange and treble balance that I enjoyed with the S7t allowing vocals to image precisely and with a natural body to their tone. Paolo Conte’s vocals on “Sotto le Stelle del Jazz” had that wonderful gruff and grizzled body to them with a nice sense of depth that I look for. The brushwork on drums that runs through much of the song had great detail to its sound as well, and it didn’t devolve into a variable “shushing” sound as I’ve encountered on some lesser speakers.
Even my colleague and co-conspirator on many loudspeaker reviews, Dr. David A. Rich was left agog at the measured performance of the Perlisten S7t towers in my very difficult room. I wasn’t kidding at the time when I said that the S7t and their novel Directivity Pattern Control Array were able to bend my room to their will from 300 Hz on up. I hadn’t seen or heard anything like it before from another loudspeaker that wasn’t using DSP or room correction. Now, this was a very premium and expensive system, so the only thing left to wonder was, what could Perlisten do to bring these technological benefits down to a price point that someone like me could afford? Well, an email from Perlisten CEO, Dan Roemer, provided an answer.
So, the vertical radiation pattern is very different but what positives does it bring? Controlling the vertical radiation pattern reduces the floor and ceiling bounces. Does it really do that well enough to make a difference for the listener? Look back at our quasi-anechoic listening window and in-room frequency response curves. The vertical radiation pattern you see here is making a rather dramatic difference.
It was obvious that we here at Secrets, along with several other audio journos out there on the internet, were both taken by surprise and impressed with Perlisten’s arrival on the scene last year. Taken by surprise because we’ve all heard lofty marketing claims by new companies introducing products before. Honestly, the “grain of salt” you take with such claims these days, has somewhat morphed to the size of an average boulder. We were impressed because Perlisten wowed us in our review of their S7t-based home theater system and by and large, legitimately made good on their claims.
Below that there is a bit of a hump from 300 Hz to 500 Hz, a matching peak at 180 Hz to the R5m and then a roll-off in the response below 80 Hz. All indications are that a similar application of room correction, maxed at 600 Hz , would clean up these room-induced bass issues as they did with the R5m. Moving to the vertical radiation pattern for positive angles for the Perlisten R5m, we see the plots for 0 to +40 degrees, scaled from 300 Hz on up provided by the manufacturer. Around 3 kHz the outer two of the 3 tweeters, which reduce the vertical radiation from the 1.3 kHz crossover to the DPC, are being turned off.
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